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Thursday, December 27, 2007

Christmas is like pregnancy. For months you prepare for the baby/Christmas. You shop for the layette/perfect gift. For days you wash baby clothes, open packages of diapers, and decorate baby's room/bake cookies, wrap presents and decorate the house. You're up half the night and then whoosh, just like that, it's over. Of course, after pregnancy and labor, you have a cute little baby to show for all your work. After Christmas, you're left with a house full of toys, wads of wrapping paper, mounds of dirty dishes, and thousands of boxes.

I have a little Christmas quiz for you. The following items filled my stocking Christmas morning. What do these things have in common?

A. They all have some yellow on the packaging.

B. They're all tasty treats.

C. They all have the letter "C" in in them.

D. They can all be bought at your local drug store/gas station around midnight Christmas eve.

My middle son, Jackson, got me the coolest Christmas gift!

He has a chance to earn play money at school for good behavior and excellent test scores. Every Friday, his teacher opens a "class store" and lets the kids use their "money" to buy items from the store. They can buy small toys, candy, and other treats.

Jackson hadn't bought a thing all year. He just kept saving his money week after week (which is really unusual for him since money tends to burn a hole in his pocket.) Anyway, he saved up a ton of money and used it all to buy me a beautiful necklace for Christmas. Is that the sweetest thing ever? Of course, today he told me that I was the worst mom EVER and believe me, after his behavior the last couple days, I felt like the worst mom ever. I briefly considered selling him to gypsies.

Oh yeah! I totally forgot about this to give you a heads up! My interview was featured on NPR this morning. Oops, sorry about that. You can check it out HERE though. In honor of the 10th anniversary of the 'web log', they're featuring information and interviews about blogs all week. Here's the web page featuring MY STORY. It always amazes me how they can take hours of tape or film and cut it down to a minute or two. And sheesh, you'd think I could at least slap on some lipstick before getting my picture taken. @@

Hey...at least you got SOMETHING in your stocking! It wasn't until late on Christmas Eve that Santa realized he had dropped the ball and forgot to get anything for my stocking! Try explaining that to your kids on Christmas morning. "Wow! Mom....what did you do to make Santa mad at you??"

The picture looked great; the interview was exceptional and you sounded intelligent, articulate (except for the giggle, which I loved) and very human!Your Christmas chaos was wonderful to view...brings back memories of when my 6 were little. Thank you for sharing the sunshine !!!

on a more random note than you probably often get, Yia Yia brought this to my mind. I assume it is either kid language or some ethnic name for grandma- but it sounds exactly like how one would say, "oh God, God" in Scottish Gaelic. I know many people who say that (yia yia) as an expletive like 'oh my goodness!'. kinda funny... if you are me.

and I LOVED your friend's Christmas poem! I will be giving it even more circulation. good stuff.

As I read this blog entry today I realize this is the beginning of the end of a blog i though very spontaneous, free thinking & funny ; Someone I enjoyed visiting every day.

It saddens me because now that you have a book deal and you are actually going to be paid for being you, you are going to have to change because no one in 'the business' is allowed to remain them self. Someone has to tell you how to be you.

We don't have Christmas stockings for my husband and I so I don't get those kind of gifts. I'm not sure if my husband would even know what de-icer was!

Loved the interview and article. I'm thrilled you are bringing in so much extra income from ads. Does this mean Joe is home more often instead of having to put in so much overtime? I hope so. I'm sure you and the kids love having him around more.

Am I the only person who wraps for Santa...I like your way much better. But my 3 kids would freak if they didn't have paper all over the floor...Thanks for sharing your family with us...You make me laugh every day Dawn..Have a great New Year...And good luck in 2008...You are AWESOME!!!!!!!!!

Dawn, you sounded great on your interview. I know it sounds premature, but a CD of you reading some of your stuff would be awesome! I love your voice!

My stocking was mostly empty. My husband has yet to figure out that I refuse to fill my own. I'll put the requisite orange, candy and nuts in there, but the rest, well, that's his job. Maybe he'll figure it out one of these years . . .

I remember reading your post for the Pokemon cards as it was recommended reading on some of the blogs I visited. Your photo looks good, and the interview was really good as well. Congratulations on your success.

wow santa sets everything up?????he doesnt do that for us..... no that is something we spend the next three days doing lol.I havent checked out your interview it is late here and I will do that in the morning.............

Santa doesn't wrap presents at your house either! I thought I was the only person who grew up like that. I think it just makes more sense that way. Does this mean you open your presents on Christmas Eve too??

You look beautiful! I wouldn't have noticed the (lack of) lipstick had you not mentioned it.Besides, if I had to choose between hair and make-up, I think I'd go with the hair and a few dabs of face-paint (I'm really scary without a light dose of foundation!)

Hang on to the boxes...when the toys break or lose their appeal, the boxes will come in handy for building forts and such...or for the smaller boxes, "Cardboard Man!"

I can commiserate with you about the stockings. Once in the last 20 years, did Santa slip a little surprise into my stocking. Now, I just get a little something for myself, add it to my stocking with all the same junk everyone else is getting, and by morning, I've fogotten all about it and I get to say, "Thanks, Santa...it's just what I wanted!

Enjoy this time with your family, but keep the rake handy in case you have unexpected company!

Wow, Santa left some really cool presents. I think Santa played with all the presents before he left (HEHE).

Whose beautiful Christmas tree was that? It looks like a picture postcard. Very symetrical (only a math teacher would say that).

I loved the t-shirt too!!!

I guessed right off the bat that those gifts came from the gas-station. At least our Walgreens is 24 hours so you can get a halfway decent gift in there on Christmas (not that I would know that, really).

Your slideshow is fantastic! Something felt funny as I was looking at it, and then I realized that I don't think I've ever seen Christmas morning pictures of kids in jeans! :-) Thank goodness you told us the other day about your Christmas morning rules...otherwise I might still be perplexed!I especially love the picture of your dad. He looks so sweet - can I bring him home with me? :-) He must be so proud!Wishing you very happy holidays - and thanks for sharing them with us!

Got a huge laugh from your stocking stuffers! Good interview & your photo was darling! I'm loving the new scrolling picture window thingy--I'll have to check into using them as well. Happy Christmas Cleanup!

I too have always felt that Christmas was like being pregnant. I am a teacher and I feel like the school year is like a pregnancy too! You work all year long to get the kis the way you want them to be and then you let them go!

Obviously the answer is "d", but before I saw the multiple choice list, I thought they were all items to help get out of the house and take the kids to school (I thought one of the bags of chocolate was coffee at first). Who doesn't love de-icer--I'm all about giving gifts people will use--like the rolls of paper towels I gave to my in-laws. :)

WooHOO! I have been threatening to sell my kids to gypsies for years! I am so glad to know I am not the only one. When they were tiny and colicy (all of my 3 were colicy, actually they finally call it reflux so the last one had reflux and a treatment) I would tell my mom they were on the wagon and heading out of town but the gypsies brought them back!

About the stockings... I am the stocking stuffer for everyone here :) Including myself. I leave mine short two or three things, because a movie or CD usually ends up in there from an unknown source.

This year I bought something I have been needing for what seems like ages, I can never have enough of them, and I can never seem to find the ones I already have. Not to mention how handy they are in the days following Christmas. I've already used them half a dozen times! Have you guessed yet? I filled my stocking with pliers! I bought a set of 5 pairs of pliers, (or maybe it was 7 and I've already lost 2?) and I've already had to fix about 7 zippers from the pile of "mom will fix it"s on the table.

If it can't be fixed with a glue gun, tape, or pliers... it probably can't be fixed! lol.

Hey Dawn- thanks for leaving a comment on my blog! You're cracking me up about your stocking--lovely husband and I purposely buy each other stocking stuffers from CVS! This year I even added some snacks from Safeway. :) We figure that we are going to eventually need shaving cream, deodorant, and nail polish remover anyway- why not wrap it up! Merry Christmas!

Thanks for sharing the pictures, Dawn. I was truly impressed by the organized presents by the tree. I've never seen that so well presented before, except in magazines that make me feel inferior -- now ever your blog is doing that ;) The kids looked happy, and I love how Santa leaves the presents at your house. I was going to ask how each kid knows which presents are for him, but I think I figured it out when I saw how you did it. Love it!

And thank you to Aubrey for commenting because, before I saw the choices, I also thought that the stocking gifts were what Santa had brought you to help out get out of the door in the morning and the kids to school on time. Are you sure that wasn't the *real* theme?

And sorry for going on and on, but I love my stocking story from this year, so I'll share.... My 4 year old son decided to be in charge of the stockings this year, so in the morning when the kids woke us up -- granted it was after 8am, so I shouldn't complain but I had a hard time sleeping three nights in a row -- he brought them up to mommy and daddy's bed, a rare treat. First his, then his sisters, then mine. He went down to get Daddy's and I heard a "OH NO! Santa *forgot* to get you anything, Daddy! It's EMPTY!" I requested he bring it up anyway, so he did. As he was carrying it up the stairs, he was still worried that it was empty, so in went the grubby little paws. "There's only paper in here!" and it was thrown aside on the stairs as he continued climbing. Grubby hands went in again "And money." And gift cards were scattered on the stairs. He ran into our room, holding the stocking open in my husband's face "See, it's EMPTY!" I went back to the stairs with him and collected the worthless "paper" and "money." Santa did Daddy ok actually; the paper was front row tickets to Cirque du Soleil, and the "money" was gift cards for Cold Stone. Poor kid took quite a bit of convincing to reassure him that Santa hadn't actually forgotten Daddy.

Of course, this was also the child who asked us in the car this weekend if toilet was spelled "T-O-T-O." Daddy simply said no and spelled it "T-O-L-I-E-T" which cracked me up. I got it though. We installed new toilets after potty training our son last winter and realizing the the 14 year old low flow toilets couldn't handle a newly potty trained child. They're Toto Drake toilets (highly recommended!) and have the brand name on the back where my son stands several times a day. Tee hee!

Really, I should share this on a blog myself or a diary or something but I never think to do something like that and wouldn't know how to start. This is just too convenient. Sorry, Dawn!

My almost 4 year old Jaxon got the same green garbage truck and Lightning McQueen track (both noisier than I anticipated) for Christmas (along with several of the Cars characters to go with it.) He loves them both! It was funny seeing that picture though - I knew immediately whose gifts those were!